Why are four Mountain West teams underdogs?

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The first college football games of 2018 are still about 30 weeks away, the second signing day has not occured and spring football is still weeks away. That is not stopping 5Dimes to release absurdly early odds for 2018.

The odds do not look good for the Mountain West for the games that were picked out of about two dozen contest.

Let’s take a closer look at why the Mountain West teams are all underdogs.

Colorado -6 vs. Colorado State (Denver; Sept. 1)

Starting with Colorado State and Colorado the Rams are going to be breaking a new quarterback, well sort of. Collin played in six games as a true freshman before he tore his ACL in 2016. He did not play last year recovering from the injury and that led to Nick Stevens being the guy.

The Rams are replacing both offensive and defensive coordinators and lose one of its best receivers in school history in Michael Gallup who could very well be an early round NFL Draft pick. However, the positives are that Hill was a really good signal-caller as a true freshman and the Rams return a wealth of riches at running back even though Dalyn Dawkins. is moving on after rushing for 1,339 yards. They do return Izzy Matthews, Marvin Kinsey and Rashaad Boddie

San Diego State at Stanford -15 (Sept. 1)

This one might be the most egregious lines that were released. Yes, the Aztecs lose Rashaad Penny which is a big deal while Stanford returns Heisman finalist Bryce Love. However, the Aztecs return its entire starting offensive line, quarterback Christian Chapman, running back Juwan Washington to take over and a defense that will be good once again.

Go ahead and take San Diego State to cover and thank me later.

Navy -12.5 at Hawaii (Sept. 1)

This line just got a lot more interesting now that Hawaii has lost quarterback Dru Brown and wide receiver Dylan Collie who are transferring from the program. Oh and starting running back Diocemy Saint Juste has graduated and moved on.

The Warriors defense was not very good last year and taking on an efficient triple-option attack is a tough scheme to stop. That 12.5-point line is tempting to take for the Warriors but everyone probably should stay away.

Washington State -7.5 at Wyoming (Sept. 1)

Wyoming will have a new quarterback with Josh Allen off to the NFL and his replacement could be Nick Smith who was Allen’s backup and started during when he was on the mend.

The Cowboys should have one of the best defensive units in the country for 2017 and that will be needed to stop the Cougars wide open passing attack which will be piloted by a new quarterback with Luke Falk no longer in Pullman.